Philadelphia voters will decide whether an independent board should be created to monitor and investigate the city's jail system.
City Council on Thursday unanimously approved a bill supporting the formation of a nine-member Prison Community Oversight Board and an Office of Prison Oversight to address issues like understaffing, cleanliness, deaths and escapes. A question on the primary ballot in May will determine whether the board and office are created.
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"Society would have us to believe that persons that don't own a home or have some upwardly mobile job are not citizens, are not neighbors," said Councilmember Nicolas O'Rourke, who introduced the bill this fall with Isaiah Thomas. "They are our neighbors, they are our incarcerated neighbors, and so it is important that their conditions are tended to with eyes and by persons that are caring for them and want to make sure they're doing well."
The oversight board would hold monthly public meetings and make policy recommendations to Department of Prisons and Office of Prison Oversight. It would include four members appointed by the mayor, four by the City Council president and one by the city controller. The appointments would be made within 60 days after the board's creation.
Members could not be employed by the Philadelphia Department of Prisons, the Sheriff's Office or the police department during their tenures. The board would be required to have at least one member who had been incarcerated in the past. Members would be limited to two, four-year terms.
The Office of Prison Oversight would be led by a director appointed by the mayor. It would be tasked with increasing transparency and accountability, accessing and monitoring prisons, meeting with staffers and incarcerated people, and developing community education programs.
O'Rourke and Thomas said the board is about ensuring meaningful and consistent protections that outlast changes in prison leadership and government administrations. Thomas said he hopes the board makes it easier for the public to access information about the conditions in Philly jails and increases transparency and accountability.
"We just want folks to understand that this is something that we feel like is important," Thomas said. "It's innovative, and I think it addresses a lot of the questions that people have."
Thomas said he and O'Rourke will continue to work with the mayor, other public offices and stakeholders to further determine the makeup of the board and the types of power it will hold.
As of September, there were 4,733 people in Philly's jail system, a 41.1% drop from the 8,082 people behind bars in July 2015, a city report shows. But the city's jails have been chronically understaffed. A court monitor report in September noted 824 unfilled correctional officer positions, a 47% vacancy rate.
This fall, the city released 100 people awaiting trial due to staffing shortages. That came after a judge ordered Philadelphia in August to set aside $25 million to address vacancies, because the city had broken a 2022 settlement agreement stemming from a lawsuit over "horrendous" jail conditions.
At least six people have died in Philly jails this year, including two people in one week in September and one earlier this month. Fishtown resident Joey Gabor, 41, was arrested Dec. 11 for narcotics possession and was found unresponsive in his cell the following evening. As of Monday, the Department of Public Health said the case is still pending and a cause of death has not been released.
"All we know is we have no answers," Gabor's sister, Leslie Gabor, said at Thursday's council meeting. "He walked into PDU late Wednesday and he never came out. And we wanna know why. Why? Why did he never come out? Why? I have so much more to say, and I want answers. And I will not stop. Do you see my face? I will not stop until I have answers. ...We want justice for Joey."
Legislation to create the Prison Oversight Board initially was introduced in 2022 by former Councilmember Helen Gym, but Thomas took up the issue after she left office to run for mayor. In 2023, Thomas proposed similar legislation following the escape of two prisoners from the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center, but it was tabled to adjust language of the bill.